What can the automotive industry do for 'dual carbon'?

On December 27th, at the 23rd China High tech Fair's "China High tech Forum · Entering the New Track of Intelligent Vehicles" themed forum, guests from the automotive industry discussed hot topics such as "new cars", new patterns and missions for the development of the automotive industry, and how to create a new ecology for the future of automobiles.

What can the automotive industry do for 'dual carbon'? Yuan Chengyin, Director and General Manager of the National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center and Secretary General of the China Automotive Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance, said that developing new energy vehicles is an important direction to achieve the "dual carbon" goal, and the path to achieving "dual carbon" in the automotive industry is digitization and electrification.

Yuan Chengyin said that digitization is reflected in various aspects such as research and development, production, and monitoring. "In the future, zero carbon emissions can be achieved not only in the design and use process, but also in the manufacturing process. This is the ultimate goal. In terms of electrification, the carbon emissions of traditional fuel vehicles are twice that of new energy vehicles. He emphasized that "clean power distribution must be considered in electrification". "Nowadays, most of the electricity is generated by thermal power. Around the large-scale application of electrification, it is necessary to establish a clean configuration power supply and distribution mode for new energy vehicles, turn the vehicle into a movable charging and discharging device, and interact with the vehicle network to achieve efficient utilization of electricity".

The solution proposed by Yuan Chengyin is to conduct research on the construction and layout planning of charging and swapping stations and hydrogen refueling stations, increase intelligent charging control and clean energy storage applications in charging stations, guide new energy vehicle users to use clean energy as much as possible, and reduce the carbon emissions of the entire electric vehicle power supply chain. He pointed out that hydrogen energy, as a zero carbon emission energy source, is still in its infancy, with an incomplete industrial chain, a lack of key technologies, and insufficient engineering capabilities for hydrogen production, storage, and transportation equipment and accessories. It is also necessary to focus on tackling related technologies in the new material system.

The competitive landscape in the automotive industry is undergoing significant changes. In addition to traditional vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, and dealers, "battery, motor, and electronic control" companies, information and communication technology companies, and new hardware and software companies are accelerating their integration into the automotive industry.

According to Xu Yang, Managing Director and Global Partner of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), software has brought tremendous changes and opportunities to the automotive industry, and 90% of the differentiated features in the future will be related to software. He said that since 2014, host manufacturers and component companies have invested a total of 150 billion yuan in software research and development. By 2030, the size of the automotive software market will reach 1 trillion yuan.

Yang Hong, Chairman of Shenzhen Hangsheng Electronics Co., Ltd., said that from an industrial perspective, the comprehensive integration of automobiles and related industries presents characteristics of intelligent, networked, and platform based development. From an application perspective, automobiles will gradually transform from simple transportation tools to intelligent mobile space and application terminals, becoming an important carrier of new business formats. He said that Hangsheng's response measures are to continuously enhance its independent innovation capabilities from traditional hardware suppliers to system service providers, and then to intelligent travel service providers.